[Elecraft] Alligators and Bats

[Julian, G4ILO]

But who knows, if you'd called using 400W one more time you might have made
it? I don't believe such a small increase in power would make that decisive
a difference.

I think this argument exercises people too much because the numbers make it
feel like if you run a tenth the power it will be ten times harder to make
QSOs. The power difference only matters at all when conditions are
marginal. Most of the time, 10 watts is perfectly adequate. That probably
accounts for 50 - 70% of contacts. For the percentage of QSOs where copy
becomes difficult, conditions will take the signal up and down more than
10dB, and the low power station will still make many of the contacts just
by repeating things a bit more often. So the QRP guy will only lose a few.

I'm sure it could be calculated mathematically (though not by me!) but I'd
hazard a guess that given a normal distribution of signals, a 10W station
will work at least 90% of those a 100W station will work, all other factors
being equal. That's perfectly acceptable to me. It isn't a matter of life
and death to work any given station, so if someone can't hear me on a
particular occasion I'll go and talk to somebody else who can.

72,
--
Julian, G4ILO. (RSGB, ARRL, K2 #392)
Homepage: http://www.qsl.net/g4ilo

Vic Rosenthal <rakefet@rakefet.com> wrote:

This is an interesting discussion.  I'm a firm believer in using just the
necessary power for a solid QSO, so I'm often turning the wick up and down.
 One
thing that I've learned is that a few db make a BIG difference when
conditions
are marginal.  Recently I was trying to work a weakish JA on 160M.  I
called him
with 15 watts from my K2 -- he just kept CQing.  I turned on my amp (400
watts)
and called him -- QRZ?  I got several QRZ's, but couldn't make a QSO. 
Finally I
switched to my other exciter to get more output from my amp (800 watts) and
made
the QSO.  In this case, 3db made all the difference.